UConn's Jeremy Lamb

In last night’s NCAA final, UConn’s Jeremy Lamb sat out the last eleven minutes of the first half with two fouls, then sparked the Huskies comeback victory with twelve second-half points. Around Atlanta’s northern suburbs, Will and many of his former teammates sat in rapt attention. Jeremy used to practice with Will, after haven played on the North Atlanta Flight home-school middle school team.

Jeremy’s older brother Ro graduated from Living Science, and was one of the Servant Leaders on the first Jekyll Island trip I went on, in 2005. Ro played for the Flight Varsity with Willis Norman, George Ewing, and John and Ben Hoffer. Ro’s father Rolando coached Flight.

CBS’s Jim Nantz told the story of Coach Lamb’s own NCAA Tourney shining moment, hitting the last-second shot to give VCU the 70-69 victory over Calhoun’s Northeastern squad in a 1984 NCAA tournament second-round game. Rolando later played in the CBA, and now runs a youth sports ministry in Atlanta.

In 6th-7th-8th grade Jeremy with Connor and DJ on the Flight middle-school team. Since Jeremy was taller and a better prospect, he was sent to play on the powerful Norcross High teams. The same age as Will’s classmate DJ Hoffer (who called Lamb "his best friend in middle school"), Jeremy often practiced with Flight. Having led UConn in scoring during the NCAAs, USA Today now wonders if he’ll turn pro after his freshman year (I doubt it).

Last night Flight players, and Living Science students and parents, were posting pro-Jeremy posts on Facebook, before and during the game.